This invention relates generally to night vision devices, and more particularly, to a night vision device including a camera to record the images produced by the night vision device.
Night vision devices are commonly used by military personnel for conducting operations in low light or night conditions. The night vision devices utilized by the military typically include image intensifier tubes and associated optics that convert visible and near infrared light into viewable images. Conventional night vision goggles (NVG) have been in widespread use for several decades. All variants of the currently fielded hardware are based on a common optical architecture. This architecture consists of an objective lens, an image intensifier tube, and an eyepiece lens. Functionally, the objective lens focuses an image of a low light level scene onto the image intensifier tube. The intensifier tube amplifies this faint image and presents an amplified image on its output surface. The eyepiece lens allows a human eye to view the amplified image.
To enhance night vision devices, enhanced night vision goggles (ENVG) have been developed. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,035,472; 6,560,029; 6,762,884; and 6,791,760, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. These ENVG's incorporate thermal imaging cameras or detectors to detect infrared radiation. Thermal imaging cameras are responsive to different portions of the infrared spectrum and are often referred to as infrared cameras, thus providing additional information to the viewer. The images from the image intensifier tube and from the infrared camera are combined to provide an enhanced image to the user.